1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to computer-implemented systems and processes and, and in particular to computer-implemented business automation processes. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a computer-implemented method and platform that implements an active management strategy throughout a structured entity.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the pace of business evolution increases, globally integrated enterprises are struggling to find effective ways to align strategy, management, and operational execution in pursuit of transformational business goals. Effective strategic execution requires integration of strategic planning with global production and value delivery processes in a manner that frequently requires a new language for business communication. Effective strategic execution also requires an ability to simultaneously integrate requirements across various combinations of three emerging product categories: corporate performance management, extension of enterprise resource planning (ERP), and services oriented architecture (SOA).
Three approaches are commonly employed by enterprises to improve integration between strategic planning and execution of business transformation: balanced scorecard (BSC), control objectives for information and related technology (COBIT), and information technology infrastructure library (ITIL). These three approaches, among several others, are expensive, ad-hoc, and, more importantly, do not scale at the rate required to support transformation of global enterprises and their ecosystems.
The balanced score card approach uses four standard outcome categories/perspectives. These four categories are Financial, Customer, Internal Business Process, and Learning/Growth. These four categories are too limiting and although they represent concepts common to all companies, these categories do not adequately represent the full range of potential strategic focus areas for an organization. In addition, BSC focuses heavily on quantification of strategic outcomes, but does not provide sufficient guidance to structure elaboration and management of strategic outcomes that are not easily quantifiable.
Recently software applications have begun to integrate strategic planning with strategic execution. However, many current software applications limit their implementation to the four outcome categories including Financial, Customer, Internal Business Process, and Learning/Growth, identified in the original BSC method. Some solutions removed this limitation by allowing organizations to specify outcomes in whatever manner they wish. Nevertheless, even in these cases the software programs are limited to creating software-based dashboards, which cascade the metrics of the balanced scorecard. These current solutions are limited to metric-focused strategic planning tools, project management tools and process automation tools.